Pete Stark is
my local United States Congressman and a member of the Democratic
Party. He sends out a newsletter a few times a year. This time I
actually bothered to read it, in order to better understand the man who
represents my district in the US Congress.
First article is about Medicare Drug Discount cards. Apparently people
will be able to buy a discount card from any of several (or many)
providers and these cards provide various amounts of discounts for
drugs. The basic message is that the "Medicare Approved" label provides
only the barest of protections. It is still up to the buyer to research
to make sure they're not getting ripped off. Overall an informative
article.
Second article is about job outsourcing, which is more of a concern in
the San Francisco Bay Area than many other parts of the nation. Stark
has cosponsored the Defending
American Jobs Act. This bill would deny federal funding and
loans to businesses that lay off a greater percentage of US domestic
workers than they lay off in other countries. I'm not too sure how that
is supposed to prevent outsourcing -- it strikes me too much as a "fell
good" sort of bill. In any case, outsourcing is just a natural part of
a global economy so I'm not really against it.
The third article talks about the upcoming June 30th transition of
power in Iraq. I guess a UN-led coalition will take over rebuilding
Iraq, which many in the US want because Iraq has become a great expense
in both money and lives. No real opinion from Stark here, though the
tone of the article is somewhat anti-Bush. Not too sure what the point
of this article is really, other than maybe the typical "see, I'm
paying attention without comitting one way or the other" dance
politicians do.
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The fourth
article is about health care. Due to the rising cost of health care,
some companies are starting to eliminate health care benefits for
retirees. Not a problem at Oracle since we don't have any retirement
benefits. In any case, Stark has introduced the Medicare Early Access Act.
Basically it would allow 10 million peopl between the ages of 55 and 65
to enroll into Medicare.
Now, it's a really nice gesture and all but Medicare and the rest of
Social Security is going to be broke in 20 years anyway. I'd rather
have Stark working on solving that problem than adding to the burden.
It's kind of harsh of me and maybe I'd think different if I was
depending on those benefits. But it's a very Democratic platform sort
of bill and I strongly disagree with it.
Finally we have four resolutions Stark voted on (out of dozens that are
voted on each quarter). One is for the fiscal 2005 budget which Stark
voted No because it was too Republican. Not enough information given
for me to form an opinion. Two is a resolution to commemorate the
one-year anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq. Stark also voted No,
though why he was even bothering to pay attention to it I don't know as
it is a meaningless resolution. Three is a resolution to equalize
military pay to the same standard as other government jobs. Sounds like
a good idea to me and Stark voted Yes. Fourth is a resolution that
forces publicly funded schools to allow ROTC and military recruiters
access to students. Stark voted No because he disapproves of the
current policy on gays in the military. I disagree because that is the
wrong way to send a message. If you disagree with something, work to
change it directly. Don't be all passive-aggressive.
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